September 27, 2004

Election 2004, Recount?

With the controversial 2000 election still weighing on many voters' minds, the 2004 election season is showing signs that the contest will be close enough that it could be stolen. Democrats, Republicans, and civil rights groups collectively boast of having some 30,000 lawyers poised to observe the election process, especially in the swing states where a handful of voters could decide the outcome.

Only one week after the November 2 election date, Saturn turns retrograde at 27 degrees Cancer. This station is exceptionally important since in the U.S. horoscope Pluto is at 27 degrees Capricorn. Transiting Saturn is closing in on an exact opposition to the U.S. Pluto, which in the Scorpio Rising chart is the nation's ruling planet. This combination represents blockbuster national challenges at many levels of interaction.

Saturn is already close enough that the underlying significance is playing out on a variety of political, social, and corporate levels. Pluto may be seen as the influential powers that be -- the factions, parties, corporations, or individuals (see Costner below) that build the American infrastructure (Capricorn). Saturn transiting in the ninth house of legal affairs represents the process of challenging these factions.

Over the past week we've seen the beginning of this process in the legal problems of some of the nation's most powerful corporations, including Fannie Mae, Big Tobacco, and U.S. Airways which is facing bankruptcy. As these trends indicate, and with so many lawyers already on the election scene, Saturn's station on November 8 could very well mean a recount.

The Military-Petroleum Complex

Over the past few months a new buzz phrase has appeared in American media which captures the worst fears of democracy gone awry. "The Military-Petroleum Complex" is the modern variation of President Eisenhower's famous warning about the creeping power of the "military-industrial complex", and to some commentators*, it explains the real reasons why Bush invaded Iraq, the home to the world's second largest oil reserves.

From an astrological perspective, the phrase has two clear planetary symbols: Mars represents the military and Neptune is oil. Since the U.S. national horoscope features Mars square Neptune, the natal potential for building a military-petroleum complex has always been present. Pluto, the planet often associated with power plays in the geopolitical theater, first entered the U.S. Mars-Neptune square in March 2003 when Bush invaded Iraq.

The term "complex" refers to a network or an interlinked system. In psychological astrology it refers to a set of planets correlated to compulsive behavior that can overwhelm the ego or consciousness, as astrologer Liz Greene expertly describes in her book "The Horoscope in Manifestation". The political astrologer can readily translate this meaning to a military-petroleum complex that can overwhelm the national well-being.

Pluto's activation of the U.S. Mars-Neptune began a long-term project that continues well into 2005. In the Scorpio Rising version of the U.S. horoscope Mars is found in the eighth house of corporations. Mars here refers to the vast array of corporate contractors serving the world's largest bureaucracy, the Pentagon. Mars, as the co-ruler of the Scorpio horoscope, reflects how many of America's mega-corporations, following their own financial interests, promote and profit from war.

Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams